Dubai: Dubai International (DXB) has reclaimed the top spot as the world’s busiest international airport as capacity returns to the Middle East’s largest air hub, according to aviation consultancy OAG.
Amsterdam has moved into second place and Europe’s other big hubs are catching up with Frankfurt (FRA) moving into 3rd place and London Heathrow (LHR) into 4th.
UAE, which is hosting Expo 2020 and the T20 World Cup, is entering its peak tourist season, which starts from November and goes all the way until March. Passenger traffic got an instant boost after UAE lifted restrictions on travel from a handful of countries, including India and Pakistan.
Busiest global hubs
Half of the top 10 global airports, by seat capacity, are located in the US, said OAG.
Atlanta (ATL) remained in first place, and Chicago O’Hare (ORD) kept its second-place spot. Reflective of the strong growth in the Chinese domestic market this month, three Chinese airports have made the top 10 with Istanbul (IST) and Delhi (DEL) making up the final two.
Busiest routes
In October, the busiest global international airline route was between Antalya in Turkey and Moscow Sheremetyevo in the Russian Federation (AYT-SVO).
October also saw strong recovery taking place in some of the key Middle East routes. Four of the top 10 busiest international routes started or ended in Dubai, connecting Riyadh, London Heathrow, Bahrain and Jeddah with UAE.
In the Asia Pacific region, the busiest route was Hong Kong – Taipei (HKG-TPE), with 127,000 seats in October 2021, which is down in 17th place globally.
Top domestic routes
Asia had some of the busiest domestic routes in October. Two were within South Korea, including the biggest, between Jeju and Seoul (CJU-GMP); Three operated within China, and a further three within Japan.
“China’s domestic market is back into growth mode again this month, with capacity currently sitting at 11 per cent above October 2019 levels,” said OAG.
There was no change in the routes that make it into the top 10 Chinese domestic airline routes this month, but there were significant capacity increases, particularly on routes that operate to and from Beijing. Beijing-Shenzhen (PEK-SZX), currently in 5th place, has seen airline capacity increase by 9 per cent and Guangzhou-Beijing Daxing (CAN-PKX) by 7 per cent.
In the top 10 US domestic airline routes, New York-Los Angeles (JFK-LAX) retained its top spot. Five of the busiest domestic routes were operated to or from Los Angeles.
